Draft Reactions

If the owners have their way, we won't see the heavy over slot spending we did in yesterday's draft for a long time: ESPN's Buster Olney tweets that a draft slotting system is the top priority of MLB in the current labor talks. However, Olney's colleague Keith Law notes that the majority of scouts and directors he's spoken to are opposed to hard slotting. That's a major issue for the near future, but for now let's focus on yesterday's signings…

Baseball America's John Manuel provides a nice summary of the major events of yesterday's deadline. He praises the big-spending Pirates, Royals, and Nationals, but expressed surprise at the dollar amounts the Nats committed to Brian Goodwin and Matt Purke. Manuel notes that other clubs must be surprised the Pirates managed to sign Josh Bell for $5MM. Overall, Manuel opines that baseball's August 15th deadline is not suppressing bonuses as intended, and should be moved earlier. He also advocates dropping the idea of a slotting system, trusting teams to evaluate and price talent.

Law looks at Tyler Beede's decision to turn down Toronto's offer, and also examines strong drafts from the Cubs, Pirates, Nationals, and Padres. Like Manuel, Law questions Washington's Purke deal.

Beede was one of six players not to sign within the first three rounds; BA's Jim Callis has details on the compensation picks the Jays, Padres, Yankees, Mariners, Marlins, and Rockies will receive next year.

Law wrote that he's "surprised by how little [Dylan Bundy and Archie Bradley] got relative to their talent levels." It may have had no bearing on the contracts of those two players, but I confirmed today that their agency BBI Sports Group is dealing with some turmoil, having recently fired Jeff Frye and another agent.

ESPN's Jim Bowden has an interesting article showing how the D'Backs, Padres, Rays, and Nationals re-allocated money from unsigned draft picks, and also discusses his Jeremy Sowers situation from '01 with the Reds.